Two officers held over coup plot

Manila: An army captain and chief of staff of the Army's elite Scout Rangers were recently arrested for their alleged involvement in the failed coup plot against President Gloria Arroyo on February 24, Army chief Lt Gen Hermogenes Esperon said yesterday.

Army Capt Ruben B. Guinolbay, and Lt Col Nestor Flordeliza, chief of staff at the First Scout Ranger Regiment (FSRR), are being investigated, said Esperon, adding, "We cannot tell you how deep this military involvement is."

The two arrests placed at 25, including eight army officers and 17 enlisted men, the number of those who were relieved for participating in the failed coup plot, said Esperon.

Army Captain Guinolbay gained prominence when his troops cordoned off a hospital where the Abu Sayyaf Group brought their 20 hostages from Palawan, in western Philippines, to Lamitan town, Basilan in the south in June 2001.

Some hostages who paid ransom managed to escape then, but the rebels got more hostages from the hospital and escaped despite a tight military cordon.

Scout Rangers chief Col Reynaldo Mapagu confirmed that two of his officers were "invited by the Army for interview but not for investigation".

All but one of the recently arrested military men came from the Scout Rangers. Its former head, Brigadier General Danilo Lim, was removed from his post for alleged involvement in the plot.

Those arrested were questioned on their alleged receipt of "donations" from a foundation headed by the son-in-law of former president Joseph Estrada, and for being members of "Soldiers For the Nation," a right wing rebel association, which is against Arroyo.

Four officers were placed under the custody of the Scout Rangers in a camp in northern suburban Bulacan; two at the Special Operations Command (Socom) in Nueva Ecija in central Luzon; two officers and 17 enlisted personnel at the Army headquarters in Camarines Sur province in southern Luzon.

On February 24, former FSRR chief, Brig Gen Lim, was reportedly planning to join anti-Arroyo rallies during the celebration of the 20th year of the people-backed military mutiny that paved the way for the ouster of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. He was also suspected as head of the Soldiers for the Nation. Seventeen enlisted men under him, of the 9th Infantry Battalion, were supposed to march from Bulacan to Manila. But members of the 33rd Infantry Battalion prevented the march from the barracks.

On February 25, four policemen, including the head of a police commando unit, were also relieved.

On the same day, Marine officer Col Ariel Querubin, was sacked as commander of the First Marine Brigade based in Marawi City, in the south, after calling in Makati City for people power in protest over the sudden removal of Marine commandant Maj Gen Renato Miranda.

Querubin claimed that majority of the Marines approved of his plan to announce withdrawal of support for Arroyo on February 24.